Quotes of the day

posted at 9:01 pm on April 21, 2012 by Allahpundit

“Whitmire is an angry man. He is among a group of voters most skeptical of President Obama: noncollege-educated white males. He feels betrayed — not just by Obama, who won his vote in 2008, but by the institutions that were supposed to protect him: his state, which laid off his wife; his government in Washington, which couldn’t rescue homeowners who had played by the rules; his bank, which failed to walk him through the correct paperwork or warn him about a potential mortgage hike; his city, which penalized him for somebody else’s error; and even his employer, a construction company he likes even though he got laid off. ‘I was middle class for 10 years, but it’s done,’ Whitmire says. ‘I’ve lost my home. I live in a trailer now because of a mortgage company and an incompetent government.’

“When people trust their institutions, they’re better able to solve common problems. Research shows that school principals are much more likely to turn around struggling schools in places where people have a history of working together and getting involved in their children’s education. Communities bonded by friendships formed at church are more likely to vote, volunteer, and perform everyday good deeds like helping someone find a job. And governments find it easier to persuade the public to make sacrifices for the common good when people trust that their political leaders have the community’s best interests at heart. ‘Institutions — even dysfunctional ones — are why we don’t run amok in the woods,’ Hansen says.”

***

“People in politics talk about the right track/wrong track numbers as an indicator of public mood. This week Gallup had a poll showing only 24% of Americans feel we’re on the right track as a nation. That’s a historic low. Political professionals tend, understandably, to think it’s all about the economy — unemployment, foreclosures, we’re going in the wrong direction. I’ve long thought that public dissatisfaction is about more than the economy, that it’s also about our culture, or rather the flat, brute, highly sexualized thing we call our culture.

“Every story that has broken through the past few weeks has been about who we are as a people. And they are all disturbing…

“The leveling or deterioration of public behavior has got to be worrying people who have enough years on them to judge with some perspective.

“Something seems to be going terribly wrong.”

***

“[S]omething fundamental seems to have changed in the political marketplace. The winning strategy is no longer to be more moderate than your opponent, to offer a bigger tent. Instead, it is to be more zealous and committed to your party’s ideology…

“The irony is that the politicians who prevail in these gladiator contests inherit a system so bitter, so partisan and so ideologically polarized that they can’t accomplish anything. They know that they and their constituents would be better off if they cooperated and compromised more, but they just can’t. If they try, they face a serious risk of being run out of office, either in the next primary by someone who better appeals to the party’s political base, or in the general election by an opponent whose extremism has allowed him or her to energize the other side’s core voters.

“Politics has become a tragedy — a tragedy of the commons, that is. The individual pursuit of rational self-interest by parties and politicians, which in political and economic theory is supposed to generate the best outcome, has instead led to a cycle in which extremism, partisanship and stalemate all beget more of the same. We keep thinking it can’t continue like this, but it only gets worse…

“Arms races, free riding, tragedies of the commons — these failures in economic markets are well understood. The solutions usually involve some form of government action or regulation. But when similar failures occur in political markets, there are no institutions capable of stepping in and forcing the necessary collaboration or collective action.”

***

“‘There is a crisis of authority, and we’re not prepared to think about it in these terms,’ said Fukuyama. ‘When Americans think about the problem of government, it is always about constraining the government and limiting its scope.’ That dates back to our founding political culture. The rule of law, regular democratic rotations in power and human rights protections were all put in place to create obstacles to overbearing, overly centralized government. ‘But we forget,’ Fukuyama added, ‘that government was also created to act and make decisions.’…

“Indeed, America today increasingly looks like the society that the political scientist Mancur Olson wrote about in his 1982 classic ‘The Rise and Decline of Nations.’ He warned that when a country amasses too many highly focused special-interest lobbies — which have an inherent advantage over the broad majority, which is fixated on the well-being of the country as a whole — they can, like a multilimbed octopus, choke the life out of a political system, unless the majority truly mobilizes against them.

“To put it another way, says Fukuyama, America’s collection of minority special-interest groups is now bigger, more mobilized and richer than ever, while all the mechanisms to enforce the will of the majority are weaker than ever. The effect of this is either legislative paralysis or suboptimal, Rube Goldberg-esque, patched-together-compromises, often made in response to crises with no due diligence. That is our vetocracy.”

“On one hand (and liberals are sure to agree here) there is a downside to ‘creative destruction.’ It is good, of course, that the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, but surely some Americans were hurt in the process. To be sure, it would have been silly for the nation not to adapt to modern technology, but that doesn’t mean some people weren’t left behind. Times of economic change and technological advancement are sure to create stress and dislocation. That’s part of what we’re going through today…

“As you might have guessed, I’m arguing that there is a politically underrepresented ‘populist’ constituency in America. Demographically, they are noncollege-educated whites. Philosophically, they are generally Christian conservatives who are also skeptical of big business. They are pro-gun and pro-union. They are pro-life and pro-tariff. They believe in God and government…

“So far, this group has not equaled electoral success. That might change, though, if times get even tougher.”

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Maybe we need a Constitutional amendment specifying that unless turnout is at least 50% for an elected office, the office is left unfilled. That way if people don’t vote because the government sucks, the government will simply dry up and go away.

Good god man! Were you playin with thyself when you were writing this crap?
Keep BOTH hands on the keyboard from henceforth.

OkieDoc on April 21, 2012 at 10:10 PM

You know, I was thinking about a refutation to Perlstein’s bilge, you know, the fact that the democrat definition of compromise is Republicans caving to the dems, etc. but your refutation was much more straightforward and accurate.

I have always made my own way and thought that, that was good enough. It wasn’t. Time to start insisting by whatever peaceful means necessary that others adopt the same.

Bmore on April 21, 2012 at 9:24 PM

Bmore, my friend, you always make eloquent posts. I have been politically aware since I was a teenager—probably due to my love of history. At my job before I retired, in the morning BS sessions, my friends would laugh because I was so passionate. They agreed with me but never seemed to think there was a problem. Maybe in the past things were not as bad as I thought at the time, but little arnold saw this poopstorm coming a long time ago.

I grew up with hippies and the Weather underground type punks and now they are apparently in charge.

Philosophically, they are generally Christian conservatives who are also skeptical of big business. They are pro-gun and pro-union. They are pro-life and pro-tariff. They believe in God and government…

I’m skeptical this group exists. Where did Matt Lewis find them? Christian conservatives are not usually pro-tariff and they don’t usually believe in government. I’ve never known any who were pro-union.

Don’t take Huckabee and think he’s representative. People frequently mention him as typical and say that all evangelical social conservatives are big government.

This is inside baseball of Baptists, but I mention it because you need to know that Huck was not renowned as a conservative theologian among Southern Baptists. He failed to get endorsements from at least two who are well known.

He feels betrayed — not just by Obama, who won his vote in 2008, but by the institutions that were supposed to protect him

It’s going to sound heartless, but it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who believed a con man and wants the “institutions” to protect him. Sounds like a typical liberal who wants fairy dust and happy words.

But when similar failures occur in political markets, there are no institutions capable of stepping in and forcing the necessary collaboration or collective action.”

Collective action went out the window in 2006 when the left (Pelosi and Reid), thought they had carte blanche on national policy—and completely ran the House of Representatives like a Politburo. Add three years of our practicing community organizer, and you’ve got a recipe for anything other than “collective”.

Because of the demographic bubble we have in America, in my lifetime it has been pointless to vote because the candidates don’t represent me and my views whatsoever. All of the presidential candidates since Reagan have been essentially foreign to me, they’ve been harmful to my interests. It has been a slow march toward tyranny, they never retreat because we can’t touch them.

Unless we get behind somebody like Ron Paul, but not necessarily him. I think Palin would also qualify as the sort of Reformer America needs.

These problems need to be addressed immediately, not when the Ron Paul fans are 50 or 60. These kids are being screwed over in a big way in the present, we can’t wait until it is too late to fix it—to try to fix it or they are going to be up the creek. This is not hyperbole, the future of America depends on reforming the mess we have and re-instilling faith in our government.

There was monkey business at my county caucus that favored Romney and has disenfranchised me and my county at the upcoming state convention. Consider my faith in the American government lost.

“Governor [Mitch] Daniels slashed the budget, and they looked for any excuse to squeeze people out,” Whitmire says. “We got lost in that shuffle—cut adrift.” The Whitmires couldn’t make their payments anymore.

Written by the same Ron Fournier who worked at Associated Press for twenty years. I’m …… shocked. That article is laden with passive aggressive garbage. He wants to blame Obama, but then has to throw in a Republican scapegoat to balance it out. The gist of the article is the government will solve your problems and pay for your bills. When they don’t, it’s all their fault. What a mess.

On the Noonan article….will someone ask her if she’s voting for Obama again?

It’s going to sound heartless, but it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who believed a con man and wants the “institutions” to protect him. Sounds like a typical liberal who wants fairy dust and happy words.

kim roy on April 21, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Yep. Especially since he did not look into the fact that his rates could go up. The press has been beating that horse since ARMs were set up decades ago. Do people really shell out that kind of money and obligation without checking out what they are signing?

I believe there was some sort of oath or agreement that I had to make before I could participate in the Republican caucus in my state. It specified that I couldn’t engage in a 3rd party primary process.

At the Chelan County Caucus in Washington State, which I attended, there was some monkey business that is unresolved and I consider that oath or agreement to have been violated by the other party and is thus null and void. Therefor I do not feel bound by that oath and am free to participate in a 3rd party primary process.

That’s the way I feel when I talk to some people and explain how this country is going in the crapper and they WON’T get it.

Mirimichi on April 21, 2012 at 10:40 PM

Many of them don’t want to “get it” because they are now getting some sort of government goodie. The republic will stand only until people realize they can vote themselves some of somebody else’s money. We are there. It’s nearly a 50-50 split. This will be very hard to overcome–electorally.

Many of them don’t want to “get it” because they are now getting some sort of government goodie. The republic will stand only until people realize they can vote themselves some of somebody else’s money. We are there. It’s nearly a 50-50 split. This will be very hard to overcome–electorally.

And then there are also those who just don’t think something like this can happen here. It’s happened before. It’s happening again. The fascist/progressive movement is, and has been, alive and well in this country for decades. They are now making, in my view, what they consider to be their big, final push now. November 6 is important in a way many people do not yet comprehend.

And even with a victory then, we are not out of the woods. There are progressive Republicans as well.

I believe there was some sort of oath or agreement that I had to make before I could participate in the Republican caucus in my state. It specified that I couldn’t engage in a 3rd party primary process.

At the Chelan County Caucus in Washington State, which I attended, there was some monkey business that is unresolved and I consider that oath or agreement to have been violated by the other party and is thus null and void. Therefor I do not feel bound by that oath and am free to participate in a 3rd party primary process.

FloatingRock on April 21, 2012 at 10:47 PM

What “other part”?

Are you saying you feel free do violate your word of honor because someone else committed some shenanigans (which is most probably a product of your paranoid imagination anyway – I remember you mentioning “helicopters flying around” and “Romney is stealing the primary”)?

Many of them don’t want to “get it” because they are now getting some sort of government goodie. The republic will stand only until people realize they can vote themselves some of somebody else’s money. We are there. It’s nearly a 50-50 split. This will be very hard to overcome–electorally.

predator on April 21, 2012 at 10:48 PM

as a person getting a gov’t goodie … I get it ….

(the goodie I get is based upon military service for 20 years )

we are at the tipping point ….

I think Jefferson said that the republic would stand until ppl understood they could vote themselves largess from the public treasury …

It’s going to sound heartless, but it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who believed a con man and wants the “institutions” to protect him. Sounds like a typical liberal who wants fairy dust and happy words.

kim roy on April 21, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Yep. Especially since he did not look into the fact that his rates could go up. The press has been beating that horse since ARMs were set up decades ago. Do people really shell out that kind of money and obligation without checking out what they are signing?

AZfederalist on April 21, 2012 at 10:42 PM

It’s just headshakingly amazing isn’t it? Signing a piece of paper worth tens of thousands of dollars, possibly hundreds of thousands and not reading it? Expecting the “institutions” to take care of you?

They hide from responsibility and then cry when things go wrong. It’s always someone else’s fault.

This is how society is going to heck in a handbasket – way too many people just surf through life wanting someone else (usually the government) to do the heavy lifting. This is why they hate conservatives – we expect each individual to do their own heavy lifting; ie, personal responsibility.

“Indeed, America today increasingly looks like the society that the political scientist Mancur Olson wrote about in his 1982 classic ‘The Rise and Decline of Nations.’ He warned that when a country amasses too many highly focused special-interest lobbies — which have an inherent advantage over the broad majority, which is fixated on the well-being of the country as a whole — they can, like a multilimbed octopus, choke the life out of a political system, unless the majority truly mobilizes against them.

Mancur Olson was a brilliant political scientist. Him and James Buchanan are the most insightful writers of our age. Obviously he was dramatically wrong about the remedy to the problems he so accurately diagnosed and studied.

So is Friedman. Democracy can’t be the solution when it is the problem.

I grew up with hippies and the Weather underground type punks and now they are apparently in charge.

arnold ziffel on April 21, 2012 at 10:25 PM

I live in a town run by Democrats, in a city run by Democrats, in a state run by Democrats– your state. We just finished a city council election in which every candidate was a Democrat (well, maybe one wasn’t, he never declared his party affiliation), and yet there were the Good Guys (my candidate, of course) and the Bad Guys.

At a post-election meeting to strategize about the next election, the Bad Guys were repeatedly called, by Democrats present (the 3 Republicans at the table and myself were cracking up with laughter), “the Far Left,” “the ultra-Liberals”… and it was revealed by one of their former campaign managers, now one of ours, that your description is precisely who they are:
ex-hippies and counter-cultural types who put on lawyer suits and now are determined to take over the city, using any means to do so.

The entire discussion over the proper approach to the next campaign– the high road (white papers, lofty debate and elevated discourse) or the Alinsky road (mockery, ridicule, and find out if one of them ate a dog) exactly mirrored the on-going tactical discussions on the HA threads. Was fascinating.

Unfortunately, I do know Christians who are pro-union. I imagine they’d be pro-tariff too. Yes, they’re Democrats. I’m thinking of two friends in particular–one is a minister (he grew up in Michigan and has family that work in the auto industry, which influences him) and the other is a whip-smart theologian/professor at a prestigious school (yeah, East coast). We avoid these conversations because they never end well since we’re all sure of our beliefs and positions. :) They would support items you’d read at SoJourners. Relevant and Cameron Strang lean that way too, and they’re Charismatic. I got tired of Relevant’s overt “social justice” and Democrat social issue positions that I didn’t renew my subscription.

Are you saying you feel free do violate your word of honor because someone else committed some shenanigans (which is most probably a product of your paranoid imagination anyway – I remember you mentioning “helicopters flying around” and “Romney is stealing the primary”)?

joana on April 21, 2012 at 10:55 PM

No, that’s what you’re saying.

What I’m saying is that I had an agreement with the GOP, which they violated by disenfranchising me and my country, and if they’re not bound by it then neither am I.

Ed mentions twitter. I wonder if CC hectored Ed and others on twitter too much and Ed just decided to do it because at least he has some control here.

It’s always good manners to be polite to the host. ;)

kim roy on April 21, 2012 at 11:01 PM

Ed is generous and too charitable. Coolchange must have been obnoxious on Twitter. It didn’t help that s/he said that on a farewell post to Tina. My mom always told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then be quiet.” I guess coolchange80 didn’t learn that life lesson. :) Too bad.

Ed is generous and too charitable. Coolchange must have been obnoxious on Twitter. It didn’t help that s/he said that on a farewell post to Tina. My mom always told me, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then be quiet.” I guess coolchange80 didn’t learn that life lesson. :) Too bad.

conservative pilgrim on April 21, 2012 at 11:10 PM

CoolChange has posted far worse than he did in that thread yesterday. Much worse. CoolChange80 uses the same handle on Twitter and is a nutball.

I don’t remember if it was Rush or Levin, but one of them stated that the small children of today, ALL of their tax money as working adults has already been spent. He said that there is no money in the budget when they are our age to even pay their current ongoing government operations in 50 years. We are deeply in a pickle right now.

Therefor I do not feel bound by that oath and am free to participate in a 3rd party primary process.

FloatingRock on April 21, 2012 at 10:47 PM

I sometimes think of the Tea Party movement as a sort of present-day political “Big Bang,” in which anti-overspending, liberty-loving sentiment against big government expansion finally coalesced and exploded in a burst of energy that created a new political universe in 2010. But now the dust clouds are swirling around everywhere, in local conventions like yours, everywhere, and in turn are coalescing into the political equivalent of star clusters, galaxies, solar systems: restored Republican parties and third parties. This formation (or re-formation) period has a way to go… it certainly isn’t all going to fall into a political system before the next Presidential election.

Do what you gotta do, but I think the timing’s off for the formation a national third party (which, if it can’t within a couple of election cycles become one of the two dominant parties, i.e., supplant the Republican or Democrat Party), is going to be marginal for the entire period of its brief existence). If Romney is NOT elected, you’ll see the process accelerate and something will have to be done about the Republican Party. If he wins, there’ll probably be enough discontent to keep the third party evolution process going, and growing, anyway.

But if we’re talking about even maintaining the status quo, Obama’s GOT to go in November, or things become infinitely worse. And not necessarily any more conducive to third party formation, either.